The New York Rangers will enter their fourth game of the 2010-11 season extremely short-handed. Marian Gaborik, Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal will all be on the injured reserve list for tonight’s game (and many games to come). They may also be without center Erik Christensen for tonight’s game, but that depends on him and how he is feeling (he is injured with a pulled groin muscle).
It will be a tough game for the Rangers, and the fact that they are facing off against the Avalanche (one of the fastest teams in the league) does not help the cause. If the Rangers are going to beat Colorado they will have to keep pace with them, and that will be no easy task.
The Rangers are expected to play with their lines a little bit and at least one new addition will be made to the lineup. Veteran forward Todd White will play his first regular season for the Rangers tonight. He is expected to play on the fourth line as a winger unless Christensen is unable to play.
What is usually the second forward line of Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov and Ryan Callahan (the young-star line) is expected to stay together, and become the Rangers number one line. They have been playing the best so far this season, so it is no surprise that they will be getting extra ice-time as the number one forward line.
One player that MUST step up during Gaborik’s absence is star winger, Alexander Frolov. The biggest addition of the offseason has two assists on the season, and will be relied on as a major goal scorer while Marian Gaborik is injured.
According to Andrew Gross of “The Record”, Frolov will be placed on a line with Derek Stepan and Ruslan Fedotenko. Both Stepan and Fedotenko have had excellent chemistry together, and perhaps placing Frolov on this line will give impressive results.
Another forward who will be relied on for energy and scoring is Sean Avery. It is expected that he stays on the third line, but with two new line-mates. Brian Boyle centered between wingers Sean Avery and Brandon Prust during Sunday’s morning skate. Boyle worked well with Avery last game, and Prust is a hard-working, energized winger, and he may gel well together with Sean Avery.
As I said before, Todd White is expected to play on the left wing for the Rangers tonight unless Erik Christensen is unable to play. With the expectations of Christensen playing tonight, the fourth line will likely look something like this:
Derek Boogaard-Erik Christensen-Todd White
It’s evident that the Rangers coach, John Tortorella, will not push Christensen, as he will be placed on the fourth line.
On defense the lines are expected to stay the same with Marc Staal and Michael Rozsival as the first pairing, Michael Del Zotto and Dan Girardi as the second pairing, and the final pairing being Matt Gilroy and Steve Eminger. Unless a move is made before the game, this will be the lineup.
Henrik Lundqvist will likely start tonight, but John Tortorella has said that Martin Biron (the Rangers back-up goalie) will get playing time extremely soon.
Tonight’s game will be an interesting one, and it will be fun to watch new players come up big for the Rangers.
Thanks for the read, hope you enjoyed. Feel free to comment below.
Read more NHL news on BleacherReport.com